Biography

Research | Current

Oceanic prehistory

Socio-political transformations

Agricultural development

Landscape archaeology

Spatial analysis

Thegn’s research includes projects in New Zealand, Hawai‘i, and Rapa Nui.

Thegn’s research in New Zealand focuses on three projects. The first was recently funded by the Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fund. Working with McCoy, Stevenson, O’Neale and Jorgensen the project examines how social networks beyond the village changed as Māori society developed. By tracing the spatial and temporal distribution of obsidian artefacts the project will document where and when new types of social forms came about in relation to diverse social and environmental contexts. The project builds on established methods for determining the movement of obsidian through chemical signatures of natural obsidian sources. Proposed experiments will re-establish obsidian hydration dating as a viable method for determining the age of New Zealand artefacts. By utilizing GIS and social network analysis modelling we will integrate the data to investigate the dynamic complexities of social interaction and gain new insights into how Māori society was transformed from village-based groups to powerful hapū and iwi.

Thegn’s second New Zealand project is as a member of Te Pūnaha Matatini: The Centre for Complex Systems and Networks, a New Zealand Government funded Centre of Research Excellence. Thegn is working with Allen, Plank, Kerr, and PhD student Reno Nims on a project investigating changes in Māori fishing.

Thegn’s third New Zealand based project is on Ahuahu/Great Mercury Island, working with Ngati Hei, Sir Michael Fay, Holdaway, Philipps, Jorgensen, and Furey. The project is investigating the history and land use of the island, with Thegn focusing on gardening activities on the island.

Thegn’s Hawai’i research is investigating Hawaiian ecodynamics, with an emphasis on the leeward districts of Kohala and Kona on the Big Island of Hawai’i. This research has been funded by the Royal Society of New Zealand Marsden Fund, the National Science Foundation, with further grant applications in development. The work is multidisciplinary in nature and involves collaboration with archaeologists (McCoy, Kirch, Graves, Mulrooney, and Field), ecologists (Vitousek, Lincoln), soil scientists (Chadwick), botanists (Hotchkiss), and demographers (Tuljapurkar, Lee, Puleston). Thegn’s focus is on leeward rain-fed agricultural fieldsystems, where he is documenting the relationships between agricultural development, sociopolitical transformations, and ideological shifts.

On Rapa Nui, Thegn is involved in a project investigating the evidence for terrestrial resource dynamics and societal collapse. The project was funded by the National Science Foundation and includes researchers from Rapa Nui (Haoa), the United States (Stevenson, Chadwick, Vitousek, Puleston), and New Zealand (Ladefoged). The research is focusing on climate change, environmental degradation, and subsistence transformations to develop an empirical assessment of how these may, or may not, have influenced pre-European contact societal collapse on the island.

Stevenson, C. M., Puleston, C. O., Vitousek, P. M., Chadwick, O. A., Haoa, S., & Ladefoged, T. N. (2015). Variation in Rapa Nui (Easter Island) land use indicates production and population peaks prior to European contact. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 112 (4), 1025-1030. 10.1073/pnas.1420712112